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I’ve been invited to participate in writing flushing out collaborative articles on LinkedIn. These articles are an interesting way of collaborating, sharing your expertise, and maybe creating some decent content. Plus, once you rank in the top 5 percent of contributors, you get a LinkedIn badge.
This article discusses the following:
- What are LinkedIn collaborative articles?
- When should you participate in a collaborative article?
- How to find these articles on LinkedIn?
What are LinkedIn collaborative articles?
Collaborative articles on LinkedIn are articles that are started by artificial intelligence and then are shared with industry experts who can add paragraphs of content to the sections that have been started. It looks like this:
Once in the article, click on the area where you want to add something.
Your content will show up with your profile picture and LinkedIn summary where you added it. Others can even mark it as “insightful.” And it can be voted down as well.
Each author’s section has to be a minimum of 120 characters.
These articles show in other people’s feeds as well. Some have even ended up ranking high in Google Search.
Read next: How do I know if I have LinkedIn audio?
When should you participate in a collaborative article?
The most straightforward answer is: When the topic aligns with your content tilt consider adding relevant content to the article.
Just to get the badge alone makes them worthwhile. Also, make sure your content is actually good as people will see it. It’s another way to get in front of your target audience and establish yourself as a thought leader.
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How do I find these articles on LinkedIn?
I found the first one I contributed to in my notifications. LinkedIn targets specific people on LinkedIn for this content type. Not sure that I did anything else to get this notification. Other than create content around the topic.
As of late April 2024, I can also find articles directly in the area where I would start a post. Here’s how that looks:
Once I click on “contribute expertise” I get a list of articles to choose from:
Browse all available articles here.
Earning a top voice badge on LinkedIn
Once you participate in these articles and people like your contributions, you can earn badges. For example, I earned the top marketing strategy voice badge, which is on my profile that way.
But once you earn top voice badges in more than one category, you must choose, as you can only display one on your profile. Badges are re-evaluated every 60 days.
In theory, these collaborative articles can create some unique content. But, if contributions are opened to too many people, this could also create articles that are all over the place. Just imagine: People add paragraphs with accurate (or made-up) information that don’t have much to do with the previously contributed sections. That reading experience is less than ideal.
It could be a good article, or it could just be an annoying comment section with disjointed comments and people spewing crap. Or it could turn into a Wikipedia-type library of content on LinkedIn.
It’ll be interesting to see how these articles evolve from a quality and distribution perspective. And, of course, if they are distributed well on LinkedIn, and you have a chance to participate in them, it can help you build your brand.